Uncertainty brews for state’s lawyers after election

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Following Donald Trump’s win in last week’s election, some lawyers are predicting big changes coming to their practices, while others caution against exaggerating the likely consequences.

For Charlie Domer, a Milwaukee lawyer, Trump’s victory is hugely significant for the country as a whole, but not necessarily for his practice.

“I’m personally certainly shocked and extremely disappointed,” he said.

Domer acknowledged that much remains uncertain. Still, he doesn’t see much changing for his practice, which is centered on workers’ compensation law. The main reason is that workers’ comp systems are largely left to the states to run.

“I do know any attempt to look at a federal worker’s compensation law is going to be met with significant pushback by different stakeholders in different states,” Domer said.

Others see the prospect of no change under Trump as not necessarily being a good thing. When it comes to the immigration law, Marquette law professor Ed Fallone says he is not holding his breath in the hope of seeing any large-scale reform.

“I think there’s a zero possibility of that,” Fallone said. “I think we will see a continuation of the current immigration legal scheme, if not an aggressive deportation effort.”

He said some believed the chances were greater if Hillary Clinton had won and Democrats had taken the U.S. Senate.

“The only thing I’ll say is that there’s been a large census of scholars, economists, business people and community groups who have been calling for an overhaul since the George W. Bush admin and this is a demonstration of how politics continues to make common sense reforms impossible to enact,” he said.

All this doesn’t necessarily mean, though, that immigration law won’t be untouched. Fallone said Trump is likely to undo some of President Barack Obama’s executive orders. One order likely on the chopping block was meant to give undocumented immigrants who had been brought to the U.S. as children a means of applying for renewable work permits and exemption from deportation.

“That’s going to be undone with a stroke of a pen,” Fallone said.

Another executive order Fallone says may go away next year is one ending a Department of Homeland Security program that had once had federal officials and local police cooperating more on deportation-related work.

Milwaukee lawyer Ray Dall’Osto said Trump’s presidency is likely to be most significant for his clients, who tend to be criminal defendants.

“I have great trepidation about where this will go,” he said. “At the same time I see some glimmers of possible cooperation.”

To be sure, Dall’Osto said he is not happy that Trump has already committed to choosing a new U.S. Supreme Court justice in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia. Dall’Osto noted that Scalia tended to side with the prosecution and government in criminal cases.

Still, he has not become a complete pessimist.

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Dall’Osto noted that Scalia often championed Sixth and Fourth amendments rights. The late justice, for instance, found support in the original constitutional text for both the right to confront an accuser and for procedures meant to ensure cross-examinations are adequate.

But Dall’Osto said he doesn’t know whether Trump will find that strong a conservative to fill Scalia’s shoes. And even if Trump’s pick doesn’t resemble Scalia, Dall’Osto’s clients will at least see some benefit when Congress eventually confirms the appointment.

The backlog in federal cases, for instance, will start to diminish and judges, over time, may have a change of heart, he said.

“On occasion you see judges who grow with the job and end up being more fair and balanced,” Dall’Osto said.

On one hand, Dall’Osto notes that Trump has publicly championed bringing back waterboarding and the death penalty. Even so, Trump has suggested that he will review mandatory-minimum sentencing and has talked about ways to prevent a criminal record from being a barrier to finding work. Follow @erikastrebel